November 25, 201510 yr Howdy, folks! I will be attempting a software update on the forums this weekend, most likely Saturday. If all goes well, we'll have spiffy new forums. If all doesn't go well, I'll be rolling back to the current forums software. Wish me luck! I'm going to need it.
February 2, 201610 yr Author Ok. I'm going to give this another go! I'm in the process of backing up the forums right now and will be attempting an upgrade later tonight. The forums will be locked during the upgrade. If things don't go well, I'll be rolling everything back to the current state... like last time. *sigh*
February 2, 201610 yr I'm just wondering, how big is the forum in terms of size? Text usually doesn't take up much space, but in this amount it might be quite the number.
February 2, 201610 yr Author Between the software files, the image uploads, and the database, it runs about 3-4GB.
February 2, 201610 yr That not to bad actually, I was expecting between 4 and 5. Would be way more if the 1000+ behind the scenes pictures were on there as well. Edited February 2, 201610 yr by Roth Potter
February 2, 201610 yr Author The entire site is about 6-7GB, so the forum is definitely the biggest part of the site.
February 4, 201610 yr Author *GASP!!* After a long, long time and many many weeks worth of backing up, installing, uninstalling, uploading, deleting, and trying several different new versions of the software, I THINK this one worked. I think this might just be a miracle. LOL. So, now that the forums are upgraded, I would like for all of you to notify me of any color weirdness (i.e. white text on white background, hard to read text, etc). You can post about it here in this thread and if possible, please include a screenshot. Also, if you run across any bugs, let me know. Posting images worked fine for me, but I know some of you had issues with that in the past. And I don't know about you, but I'm ecstatic for the HNet forums to be back to the dark color scheme. Feels like home.
February 4, 201610 yr Author Also, if there are any topics you would like to nominate for Featured Posts to put at the top of the forums on the main page, please post a link here.
February 4, 201610 yr Congratulations on the upgrade, Meadowmufn. I'd nearly forgotten how much I missed the white on blue color scheme! I'm still finding my way around, so I'll probably answer some of my questions myself. Here are a few comments/suggested tweaks to be going on with. 1) Other than the sidebar on the forum homepage, I haven't found a way to list recent posts. The old version let you see all posts from the past day/week/month etc., or unread posts. I thought this was an improvement over the vBulletin forum software, but I can't find the "New Posts" option in the new layout. 2) Are the circular avatars staying? I've never been convinced by them on other sites such as Google+. If they are, I'll have to edit mine as it's currently being cropped. 3) Embedded YouTube videos are huge! Only time will tell if I get used to them being so big. 4) A few signatures which contain images aren't displaying correctly - the example below belongs to Garrett Duke (obviously it will be up to Garrett to change the text color). 5) Staying close to the post footers, is there any chance that we could have something to separate the post from the signature? Depending on the signature, it can be confusing where the post ends and the signature starts. In the example below, I've just added a simple white line. You'll notice that I've also altered the word "Quote" to an icon. For consistency, I think it should either be two icons, or the words "Multi" and "Quote". I've also just noticed that there needs to be a space and possibly a colon between the word "Location" and the member's location. I'll leave it there for now. I had a few other issues with the previous version of this forum software in the way it handled BBCode, images and videos. Sometimes posts would preview correctly and then still come out wrong. Only time will tell.
February 4, 201610 yr After making my first post with the new software, I was disappointed to find that there's no preview option before you hit "Submit Reply". I used to preview every post to make sure they'd look right (and to check my spelling). As I mentioned in the post above, the old version of this software gave unpredictable results, so a preview was essential. As yet, I have no idea how this new software handles BBCode, embedded videos and so on, so I think a preview button is a must. The old software also had a way to switch between WYSIWYG and code views in the reply window. Following on from my point 5, above, if we go down the icon route, we'll also need one for "Edit". On a positve note, large images can now be shown full-size at the click of a mouse, and the strange right-click behavior I had when using the old software in Firefox seems to have gone.
February 4, 201610 yr Author 3 hours ago, HossC said: After making my first post with the new software, I was disappointed to find that there's no preview option before you hit "Submit Reply". I used to preview every post to make sure they'd look right (and to check my spelling). As I mentioned in the post above, the old version of this software gave unpredictable results, so a preview was essential. As yet, I have no idea how this new software handles BBCode, embedded videos and so on, so I think a preview button is a must. The old software also had a way to switch between WYSIWYG and code views in the reply window. Following on from my point 5, above, if we go down the icon route, we'll also need one for "Edit". On a positve note, large images can now be shown full-size at the click of a mouse, and the strange right-click behavior I had when using the old software in Firefox seems to have gone. Oh, it figures... I go through all this just to find they've taken away the preview button and customers are upset about it. I'll check for a plugin on that. It's supposed to be a WYSIWYG editor (no more bbcode needed), but in some cases the preview doesn't match what's in the editor. *sigh* The line between post and signature should (keyword "should") be a simple template update. I'll look into it (and the other points you mentioned) tonight after work. I'll also update the menu to make it easier to find new content.
February 4, 201610 yr Author Oh, and they released a NEW update last night. LOL. Ugh. Hoss, I deliberately left the sidebar off of topics specifically so the huge images in some of our best topics would fully display. I may be able to change the video size, probably another template fix.
February 4, 201610 yr 1 hour ago, Meadowmufn said: I may be able to change the video size, probably another template fix. The video size was more of a surprise than a problem! The quote above is displaying as black on dark blue in the editing window. I assume it will be white on dark blue when I post it. Three quick issues with the profile page: there seems to be an image missing from the corner of the avatar (unless I'm meant to upload something); the "0 warning points" is black on blue; should there be something in the white circle I've arrowed in the center? PS. The message that says when a post was last edited could be more subtle. Maybe not bold and in a darker color. Even smaller would be still be fine. I've also just noticed that the "Reason for edit" box is white on white. Edited February 4, 201610 yr by HossC Added PS.
February 4, 201610 yr 13 hours ago, Meadowmufn said: Also, if there are any topics you would like to nominate for Featured Posts to put at the top of the forums on the main page, please post a link here. I usually would not nominate or upvote my own stuff but I think the Rare and behind the scenes thread should be there. Beside my own I'd say the Hazzard Garage in scale and the 68 Charger General Lee restauration.
February 4, 201610 yr I just tried creating a new topic but had some slight problems. The text saying I have to type a title is the same colour as the background. Then I tried to write a title... I couldn't see anything at all of what I'm typing so the threads title name is a bit weird... Can you fix my title's name to DOH Actor Clones Meadowmufn? I'd greatly appreciate that.
February 4, 201610 yr Author I've noticed a few of the color issues myself today. It's also white on white for the login form too. I will be fixing as many of these as I can tonight, with the invisible/hard to read text getting priority, followed by making the newest posts more visible/findable. The good news is that, so far, this software is easier to tweak the look than vbulletin. Thanks for all the input so far, guys. I appreciate it and hope together we can make HazzardNet even better. Aside from the forum update, I have a few other things in the works and should be announcing them soon.
February 5, 201610 yr You are doing a great job Meadow! I like the new look! ( Of course everything looks red to me....lol.... not really..... but remember that one?) Hazzard County is my favorite place in the world and The Dukes of Hazzard is my favorite show of all time. The only show,where I can watch the same episode, over and over, w/out getting tired of it! Hopefully the Lord will let me into Heaven and it will be something like Hazzard! Hey, I have a question, esp. for the veterans of the forum ( Hard core fans)......am I the only one who watches TDOH and falls asleep to them and hasn't seen the latter part of some episodes in a long time? LOL....I think it's like reading a story book to a kid. It's comforting and sends me right off to sleep!
February 5, 201610 yr Author Ok, let's see what I did tonight... 1) New posts are under "Latest Posts & Activity" in the menu bar. You can look at just the new unread content (New Posts) or a list of all the latest activity in descending chronological order ("All Activity"). If you have any suggestions for improvements here, please let me know. 2) Not sure how to change the circular avatar. That might be something that's unfixable, but I'll look into it. 3) We'll see if people like the larger videos. If not, I'll tweak it to a smaller size. 4) That's left over BBCode. I'll have to manually go in and fix the sig. I'll fix it when I see it, but if any of you see instances of this, please let me know. 5) Done. Easy template fix. 6) That "missing image" thing on the profile page is actually the button to upload a profile pic. Not real intuitive, is it? If I can find a better one, I'll try to replace it. 7) Fixed the quote colors. If you have a better color combo suggestion, let me know. 8) Still working on the warning points colors. I'm not seeing them, probably because I'm an admin. I'll have to set up a test account. 9) I have no idea what that white circle is. Another thing I'll have to research. 10) Unbolded the "Edited" message. If you'd like me to tweak it some more, let me know. 11) Rare and Behind the Scenes photos is already in the featured topics on the main forum page. I've added the Hazzard Garage and Jaak's 1968 General Lee Project. I'm going to limit the featured topics to 10 so as to not take up too much room. There are still some various color issues I'm working on. If you spot any more, please post here and include screenshots if you can.
February 6, 201610 yr On 05/02/2016 at 8:00 AM, Meadowmufn said: 1) New posts are under "Latest Posts & Activity" in the menu bar. You can look at just the new unread content (New Posts) or a list of all the latest activity in descending chronological order ("All Activity"). If you have any suggestions for improvements here, please let me know. This is much better, thank you. I normally set it to show all content updates (posts) in the previous 24 hours. Would it be possible to have options like the previous version of the software, or to remember my custom settings? On 05/02/2016 at 8:00 AM, Meadowmufn said: 7) Fixed the quote colors. If you have a better color combo suggestion, let me know. I'd be happy with the standard dark blue background. I think the orange border is enough to highlight the quote. On 05/02/2016 at 8:00 AM, Meadowmufn said: 8) Still working on the warning points colors. I'm not seeing them, probably because I'm an admin. I'll have to set up a test account. It seems to be an element/class called "ipsType_sectionHead" (the same class is used for the "Edit Stream Settings" heading). Another one which displays as black on dark blue is "ipsType_pageTitle ipsType_largeTitle". On 05/02/2016 at 8:00 AM, Meadowmufn said: 10) Unbolded the "Edited" message. If you'd like me to tweak it some more, let me know. Is there any chance it could be a different color from the main message text, maybe gray or light blue?
February 6, 201610 yr 10 hours ago, HossC said: I normally set it to show all content updates (posts) in the previous 24 hours. Would it be possible to have options like the previous version of the software, or to remember my custom settings? I've just noticed the "Save as new stream" button, so I've managed to do this for myself!
February 7, 201610 yr Author 57 minutes ago, HossC said: I've just noticed the "Save as new stream" button, so I've managed to do this for myself! Cool! Yeah, there are a few neat new features. For example, I get an email now when there's anything that needs to be moderated. That'll help get me back here more often.
February 7, 201610 yr Author Just discovered another neat feature. There can be a separate header on each forum. I just may experiment with this. Check it out: http://hazzardnet.com/forums/forum/19-james-best-rosco-p-coltrane/
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